Communist Party of Poland

The Communist Party of Poland (KPP) was a communist political party in Poland that was active from 1918 to 1938. Upon its foundation, the party had almost as much support as the Polish Socialist Party, from whose left wing the KPP drew many of its founding members. However, national feeling and reactionary legislation drove the KPP underground, and it was illegal for the rest of its existence. However, it took part in the founding of Comintern in 1919. The party opposed the war against the Soviet Union in the east, and it experienced a brief resurgence from 1921 to 1926, during which political freedom in Poland was at its highest. In 1926, the KPP and PPS supported Jozef Pilsudski's coup against Wincenty Witos' "fascist" Polish People's Party government, but this "May error" led to Joseph Stalin reducing the party's influence in the Comintern, as Pilsudski was arch-rivals with the USSR. Soon, Pilsudski again outlawed the KPP, and factional struggles tore the party apart. The party dissolved in 1938, and it was succeeded by the Polish Workers' Party.